


I want to find you, tear out all your tenderness

by gealach



Category: Dark Wolverine (Comics), Marvel (Comics)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, M/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-16
Updated: 2015-11-16
Packaged: 2018-05-01 23:32:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5225390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gealach/pseuds/gealach
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They meet after the end of the world.</p><p>Set after <i>Secret Wars</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I want to find you, tear out all your tenderness

**Author's Note:**

  * For [manicr](https://archiveofourown.org/users/manicr/gifts).



> Title from "Howl", by _Florence + the Machine_.

The world was a small place, moreso in their line of work.

So it was that some months after the end of the world, they found each other again.

A chance of fate, or perhaps not; he wouldn’t put it past Daken to track him down and show up just while he was working.

It was an easy job, so Lester hadn’t been paying too much attention to the room full of tycoons, lazily checking his target from afar.

Then a voice beside him, unnervingly close, said: “Fancy seeing you here, sweetness.”

Lester tensed, a toothpick ready between his thumb and index finger, and gritted his teeth when a hand brushed with familiarity against his forearm.

“You look dashing all dressed up,” Daken continued in a whisper, hand briefly squeezing Lester’s forearm, lingering there and then vanishing. Lester turned just enough to see him without his target getting out of his sight, and managed not to start.

“And what happened to you,” he cocked an eyebrow, taking in all the changes in Daken’s appearance. Instead of the mohawk he sported an undercut and sideburns, but that wasn’t the most conspicuous change.

No, that would have to be the eyepatch.

Daken shrugged. “Wouldn’t you like to know.” Then he grinned, that trademark smirk of his that made Lester want to punch him and kiss him at the same time. “Maybe later? After you finish your job.”

“Who said I’m working?”

“Oh, _Lester_.” That weird brush against his forearm again, accompanied by a flutter of eyelashes.

“Are you?”

“Working? No. I just chanced by.”

“Sure.” Lester cocked an eyebrow. Daken’s hand was still on his arm. “You and your ridiculous eyepatch.”

Daken grinned. “Do you like it?”

“Very fashionable.” It matched with Daken’s dark grey suit alright; the man probably owned a thousand of them.

“Well _thank you_.” Daken squeezed his arm again. Weird. He was definitely being weird. His cheeks were even rosy, which couldn’t be a blush; he couldn’t possibly be blushing, for crying out loud.

Then Daken drew closer and Lester caught a faint huff of alcohol. Was Daken inebriated?

Plus the eyepatch –

“Your healing factor.”

“You’re awfully slow, you know that?” Daken was so close his hip brushed against Lester’s. “Always liked that.”

“I can kill you now, princess,” Lester pointed out, no actual threat behind the words. Just a statement.

Daken tilted his head. “You say the sweetest things.”

“Only to you.”

A grin. “Oh, I knew you’d missed me.”

“I never miss.” His target collapsed against a wall, blood spraying out of his throat. His wife screamed as the closest guests stepped away.

Daken cocked an eyebrow. “That was cheesy.”

“Like you’re one to talk.”

“Maybe I’m out of practice, you showoff.” Some guests were already leaving the room; Daken run his fingers up Lester’s arm. “Want to celebrate?”

“Why not?”

They made their exit easily.

 

* * *

 

They didn’t even make it to the bed.

As soon as they entered Daken’s hotel room, Daken proceeded to do what he’d been doing ever since they’d left the party: push Lester against a wall and kiss him. Lester let him, mildly intrigued by this new Daken; the end of the world had affected everyone, but he hadn’t thought Daken would be changed. There was urgency in his movements, now, that betrayed his smugness and security had been shattered away. Could it be due to the loss of his healing factor? Lester found himself wondering how had he lost it; he surprised himself by thinking he’d have loved to kill whoever had taken Daken’s eye.

He caught Daken by the shoulders, run a hand down Daken’s left arm, and there was something strange about it; it was hard, as if it weren’t flesh at all –

Daken brought his hands up to catch the collar of Lester’s shirt. His kisses were feverish, just quick brushes against Lester’s lips, and that was strange too. “If you die,” he panted whilst he kissed Lester, “If you die _again_ , I’ll kill you.”

Lester snorted. “Quite the ineffective threat, princess.”

“ _Kill_ you,” Daken growled, and grabbed Lester’s head, dug his fingers into Lester’s cheeks.

The fingers of his left hand definitely weren’t made of flesh.

Lester tilted his head back, trying to get a better look at them. “What –”

“Shut up.” Daken brought him closer again, and kissed him with fury. “Shut up, shut _up_ –”

Lester decided to let it go, and settled against the wall, fingers digging in Daken’s shoulders as well. Ages ago they’d have shredded their clothes to pieces by now, and yet here they were, making out against a wall, not even rutting. But it was – nice. Yes. It was strange, and his erection was softening already, but it was _nice_. Strange. Was Daken fucking with his perceptions? He’d thought they would fuck. He’d wanted to fuck. He was sure of that. And here he was, just kissing Daken back.

Eventually Daken tilted his head back, and there was a haze in his eye as he passed his fingers all over Lester’s face. It was almost uncomfortable, the way he was acting; almost soft.

Lester huffed an uneasy laughter. “Didn’t know you cared this much, princess.”

“You don’t _get_ to die unless I kill you,” Daken whispered, but he wouldn’t fool anyone. He’d always been so fucking easy to read, despite his conviction of pretty much the contrary. And now –

Lester let Daken continue with the weird touching. It wouldn’t hurt. That, too, was nice. He focused on Daken’s swollen lips. He wanted to kiss him again.

Instead, he said: “So _this_ is the drunk you.”

Daken scoffed. “I’m not drunk. I know my limits by now.”

“By now?” Lester run his hands down Daken’s back. “How long –”

“Since before.” Before: that was how everyone referred to the end of the world. They all remembered the incursions, and the planets colliding.

Sometimes Lester asked himself if they were all dead.

Not that he cared. This world was surprisingly similar to the old one.

He was about to say something – he didn’t even know what – but Daken drew closer again, his fingers now running down. He placed a palm on Lester’s chest as he placed the other on the small of Lester’s back to press him closer to himself, and his lips brushed against Lester’s as he murmured: “I did miss you, Lester.”

Lester wanted to laugh at the show of weakness, but he couldn’t deny he’d missed the maddening mutant as well.

Not that he’d say it; he wasn’t that far gone, not like Daken apparently was. Say something like that so carelessly! What had gotten into Daken?

Whatever it was, Daken didn’t seem to be waiting for an answer. Perhaps he didn’t care, or perhaps he’d realised his mistake. He closed the small distance between them to brush utterly non-aggressive kisses against Lester’s jaw, and Lester thought that what the hell, he would let him. They felt nice, after all. It felt even too nice, to caress Daken’s back as he felt the man’s fingers dig into his flesh, and it almost sounded like Daken was humming contentedly against his throat now.

He wasn’t even kissing Lester anymore; he was just pressed against him, unmoving, face hidden in the crook of Lester’s neck, his warm breath making the skin at Lester’s throat tingle, and it was, weirdly, enough. Lester settled more comfortably against the wall and tightened his hold on the mutant, tilted his head to nuzzle Daken’s hair.

He had a feeling that they most certainly weren’t going to fuck.

He found that he didn’t care.

 


End file.
